CRANSTON – The U.S. Labor Department awarded the R.I. Department of Labor and Training a $1.7 million grant from the Workforce Innovation Fund, Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis announced Thursday.

Rhode Island’s $1.7 million award was part of $147 million in grants given out by the Department of Labor across the country. Twenty-six grants, ranging from $1 million to $12 million, were awarded.

The funds were awarded to develop and expand innovative strategies to help Americans return to work by “delivering services more efficiently, facilitating cooperation across programs and funding streams, and focusing on partnerships with specific employers or industry sectors to develop programs that reflect current and future skill needs,” according to the Labor Department release.

“The Workforce Innovation Fund was created to cultivate and test innovative approaches to workforce training and encourage the replication of evidence-based practices in the workforce development field,” Solis said in prepared remarks.

“Developing new and creative strategies and expanding existing programs we know work will help make the workforce system more effective to unemployed Americans and employers looking for qualified employees,” added Solis.

The Labor Department release highlighted the availability of up to $20 million through a second round of Workforce Innovation Fund funding, which is expected to be announced in Spring 2013.

The second round of funding will pilot the Labor Department’s “Pay for Success” model, which “represents a new way of financing workforce investment projects through which the government only pays for services that achieve measurable results, shifting the risk of investment from the government to the private sector.”

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